Journals for Nursing, Caregiving and Patient Outcomes Research: SCI, SSCI, ESCI and Scopus Options, With and Without Article Charges

Eighteen interviews with family carers of stroke patients, analysed thematically, carefully done. Sent to a leading clinical nursing journal and returned in nine days: the journal publishes intervention studies and outcome evaluations, and the manuscript does not report an intervention or a measurable patient outcome.

The work was sound. The journal simply does not publish that design. In medical and nursing research the aims and scope statement is usually explicit about method, far more explicit than in business or engineering, and editors enforce it literally. A qualitative caregiving study belongs in a qualitative nursing journal or a community nursing title, and several appear later on this page. The same manuscript sent there would have gone out to review.

How to read a quartile before you read the list

Two quartiles exist and they measure different things. The Scopus quartile comes from Scimago, inside a Scopus subject category. The JCR quartile comes from Clarivate, inside a Web of Science category, using the impact factor. Nursing sits in both a science and a social science category, so several titles here carry SCIE and SSCI listings at once.

The index tier matters more than either. An ESCI journal shows an impact factor and a quartile that look exactly like an SCIE one on screen, so an ESCI Q1 will not satisfy a rule asking for SCIE or SSCI. Where the tier is not recorded, the tables say so rather than guess. Settling this before the cover letter is the first step in Journal Submission Preparation.

Web of Science options: SCIE, SSCI and ESCI

The senior nursing journals, most of them dual listed in SCIE and SSCI, which is unusual and useful when a rule names one or the other. Most are subscription titles, so they charge no APC. The AI Journal Finder matches an abstract against them in seconds.

Swipe the table sideways to see every column.

Scopus-indexed options, Q1 and Q2

Specialty titles, several carrying a Scopus Q1 alongside a Web of Science Q3 or Q4, which is the mismatch described above. Three charge a modest fee and the rest cost nothing.

Scopus-indexed options, Q3, where a first paper usually lands

All four charge no APC and three carry an impact factor. Planning a sequence of papers rather than one submission is the Mentorship Program.

Diamond open access: nursing journals that charge nothing

Seven titles, led by one that is dual listed in SCIE and SSCI at Q1 and still charges the author nothing.

Not sure whether the journal you picked is still indexed? Run it through the Predatory Journal Checker at ai.researchramp.com, or send us the title on WhatsApp or WeChat for a same-day check. Two minutes to spare instead? Try the Smart Quiz.

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Gold open access journals for nursing research

Published charges, from 1,000 to about 3,560 US dollars. Two of these are dual listed in SCIE and SSCI at Q1, which is rare for open access in this field.

The reporting checklist your paper needs before it is reviewed

Nursing is stricter about reporting standards than any other field in this series. Most journals in the tables above ask for the completed checklist as a supplementary file at submission, and several reject without review when it is missing. Match yours to the design.

1. Randomised trial: CONSORT, with the flow diagram and trial registration number. Register before the first participant is enrolled, because retrospective registration is queried.
2. Observational study: STROBE, in its cohort, case-control or cross-sectional version. Most survey-based nursing papers sit here and most authors omit it.
3. Qualitative study: COREQ for interviews and focus groups, or SRQR for broader qualitative designs. COREQ asks about the interviewer's relationship with participants, which people routinely leave out.
4. Systematic review: PRISMA 2020, plus a registered protocol. A review with no protocol is rejected at many of the titles above.
5. Quality improvement project: SQUIRE 2.0. This is the one carers and ward-based authors most often miss, because the work does not feel like research.
6. Mixed methods: the checklist for each strand, both attached, with the integration described in the methods rather than only in the discussion.
7. Intervention description: TIDieR alongside the main checklist, so a reader could reproduce what was delivered, by whom, how often and for how long.

Fill the checklist while you write, not the night before submission, because it usually exposes a missing method detail rather than a missing sentence. That is part of Manuscript Preparation Support, and the round that follows a hard review is Review & Response Support.

What gets accepted in this field, and what gets rejected

What does a Diamond open access journal live on if the author pays nothing?

An institution pays instead. In nursing the free titles on this page are funded by national nursing associations, schools of nursing and university medical centres, which run the journal as professional infrastructure rather than as a business.

That model is why the Journal of Nursing Research can be dual listed in SCIE and SSCI at Q1 and still charge nothing. In this field, free says nothing about quality.

Is a low publication fee in nursing research a warning sign?

Not by itself. The International Journal of Nursing Sciences charges 150 US dollars with an impact factor above 3, and the International Journal of Community Based Nursing and Midwifery charges 100 at Scopus Q1, both run by national bodies with real review.

The warning signs are different: a fee revealed only after acceptance, an indexing claim the index does not confirm, an editorial board you cannot verify, and review promised in days. A cheap society journal and a predatory journal look nothing alike once you check those four things.

Can I get an article charge waiver as an author from a developing country?

Often, and it is usually applied automatically rather than on request. Most large publishers run their schemes off the Research4Life country groups, where Group A countries receive a full waiver on fully open access journals and Group B countries a discount, commonly half.

The check happens at submission against the corresponding author's institution, so make sure the corresponding author is the one whose affiliation qualifies. In nursing there is a second route that costs nothing at all: the seven Diamond titles above, one of them at Q1.

Which nursing publishers waive fees for Indian or African authors?

The two cases differ sharply. Many African countries sit in Research4Life Group A or B, so authors there commonly receive a full waiver or a half discount automatically from publishers including Wiley, Sage and BioMed Central. India is not on the Research4Life lists, so publishers using those lists alone offer nothing, while some apply a World Bank income-based discount and Elsevier scales its charge by national income.

For an Indian nursing author the practical route is to check the journal's own fee page, ask the library about an institutional agreement, and otherwise use the free titles or the 100 to 150 dollar options above, which are indexed and real.

Which nursing conferences index in Scopus proceedings?

None of the sources behind this page matched a nursing conference proceedings series, so no list is given here rather than guessed. Nursing is a journal-first discipline, and its major congresses publish abstracts in journal supplements rather than indexed full proceedings.

If a nursing conference claims Scopus-indexed proceedings, search the series title and ISSN in the live Scopus source list before you pay anything. An abstract in a supplement is a useful record for a CV, but it is not an indexed article and most promotion committees do not count it as one.

Can I extend my conference abstract into a journal article in nursing research?

Yes, and in this field it is the normal path, because conference output is usually a published abstract rather than a full paper. An abstract is not a prior publication in the copyright sense, so the full article is unconstrained.

Two rules still apply. Name the conference, year and abstract in the cover letter and the acknowledgements, and check what the conference actually published, because a small number of nursing meetings publish full proceedings with a DOI, in which case the journal version must add substantial new material.

Which nursing journals charge no article processing fee and are still indexed?

As on October 2026 the no-fee indexed options here are the Journal of Nursing Research, Nursing Practice Today, the Florence Nightingale Journal of Nursing, the Nurse Media Journal of Nursing, Quality Advancement in Nursing Education, the Journal of Perioperative Nursing and the Journal of Client-Centered Nursing Care.

Beyond those, every subscription title in the tables above also charges no APC, including the flagship International Journal of Nursing Studies. Paying is optional in this field, not required.

How do I check whether a nursing journal is still indexed today?

Take the ISSN from a published article and search it on the live Scopus source list and the Web of Science Master Journal List, then check the discontinued and on-hold files as well as the active ones. Do it on the day you submit, because a list from last quarter is not evidence about today.

In nursing, add a PubMed and MEDLINE check. Many clinical committees care more about MEDLINE indexing than about Scopus, and the two are separate decisions made by separate bodies.

What editors screen before a reviewer sees your paper

The editorial office checks whether the English is clear enough to review, whether the structure and reference style match the journal, and what the similarity report says. In nursing two further checks are routine: whether the reporting checklist is attached, and whether the ethics statement names a committee and a reference number. Missing either is a return without review. Run your own overlap check first with the Plagiarism & AI Similarity Checker, and settle language and formatting through Manuscript Editing.

Where Research Ramp comes in

We match a finished abstract against live indexing, tell you plainly when a design will not survive the first screen, and prepare the submission so the editorial office has no reason to bounce it on formatting. Subject-matched PhD editors, milestone payments, and the author stays the author throughout. Where a study needs a second site or a clinical co-author, that is Collaboration Matching, and past work is on our Case Studies page.

Questions we are asked about index tiers

Send us the abstract, we will send back the shortlist

Send us your abstract and we will return a shortlist that separates SCIE, SSCI, AHCI, Scopus and EI options, with the access model marked against each. Tap the WhatsApp icon, or scan the WeChat code. To hand over the whole route from venue choice to acceptance, that is the Full Publication Package.

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Disclaimer. Every table on this page is correct as on October 2026 and no later. Article charges shown in US dollars are approximate conversions at October 2026 rates, and journals bill in their own currency. Indexing, quartile, access model and charges change through the year, and journals can be added to or removed from Scopus and Web of Science at any time. This page is general information only. Research Ramp Private Limited accepts no responsibility or liability for any decision made on the basis of it, including the choice of journal, any charge paid, or the outcome of any submission. Every detail must be independently verified by the author with the journal's own website and the live Scopus source list and Web of Science Master Journal List before submitting. If you would like an informal second check, send us the title and we will look at it for you.

本页所有列表数据截至 2026 年 10 月，仅供一般参考。Research Ramp 不对任何依据本页作出的选刊、付费或投稿结果承担责任。投稿前请务必通过期刊官网及 Scopus、Web of Science 实时数据自行核实收录情况与费用。